Collateral Damage
by cockycute
Summary: Mulan falls in love with Belle and tries to set her free from the prison that the queen has put her in, but has her heart broken when she realizes that love isn't reciprocated.


Mulan admired Belle's courage, she admired how she had left everything that she had ever known in order to save her father's kingdom from bankruptcy. She had went off with a monster, into a situation with an unknown outcome just so that she could escape from the prison of being a princess. Mulan knew that it must have taken an incredible amount of bravery. Bravery that Mulan knew she didn't have. She had bravado, she had bravery in a fight, where her body was in danger, but she could never go into a situation without a certain outcome. In a fight, Mulan knew that two things could happen, she could win, or she could lose, she could live, or she could die. She wasn't in a high enough position to be captured. She was just a soldier, not like Belle. No, Belle was a real fighter. Belle had an inner strength that Mulan couldn't even fathom. Belle had risked her heart fighting, and Mulan knew that if she couldn't even admit that she had a heart, then she definitely couldn't put it up as collateral in any war, physical or emotional. She hated being weak, even when it was unavoidable.  
Right now, Belle was saving Mulan's village, protecting it from the Yaoguai while Mulan was sitting here, useless. Rationally, she knew that it wasn't her fault. She had hurt her leg. If she could barely walk, then how could she fight? It had been very noble of Belle to step in for her and defeat the Yaoguai, but she was still disappointed that after weeks of anticipating this victory, she was stuck here, while someone else saved her village. Mulan wasn't used to being helpless. She was used to being capable, strong, invincible. She had lost count of her many victories, and she could count her defeats on one hand. Mulan shook herself out of her self-pitying reverie. She was a warrior! She didn't have time for whining, even if it was only inside her head. Mulan heard a twig snap in the forest. She grabbed her sword, ready to attack. A handsome man with dark hair walked out of the forest. He didn't look threatening, but Mulan knew that looks could be deceiving.  
"Belle sent me here to take you back to the village so that a doctor can look at you."  
"I don't need a doctor, I'm fine."  
"Don't be ridiculous, you can't even walk. Come on, I'll help you up."  
Mulan begrudgingly accepted his help. They limped back to her village in silence. One doctor fixed the man's shoulder, while another looked at Mulan's leg. He prescribed her a special salve to help it heal faster, but still expected the recovery to take a couple of months. As the doctor told her this, Mulan nodded her head and pretended to agree, when really, she was planning to make a deal with the Dark One so that she could recover immediately. Mulan was released along with the man, whose name she learned, was Philip. They parted ways and Mulan limped to the Dark One's palace. She authoritatively knocked on the door.  
"Come in." Somehow his impish, whimsical voice sent chills down her spine. It scared her more than a menacing growl would have. She walked in and saw a golden-skinned, scaly man sitting at a spinning wheel.  
"What is it you want, dearie?"  
Mulan summoned all of the courage she could muster while in this deeply unsettled state.  
"I want you to heal my leg."  
"Is that all?" He seemed disappointed that she hadn't asked for something more extravagant.  
"Yes, that is all."  
"That seems a little boring, don't you think?"  
"Do we have a deal, or not?"  
"Now, wait a second, dearie. We still have to work out your end of the bargain."  
"What do you want from me?"  
"There's no need for hostility, dearie. All I want is one tiny thing in exchange for this favor."  
Mulan waited impatiently for him to continue.  
"If I heal your leg, then your love will always be cursed. You will never be able to ride into the sunset with your one true love."  
"Deal." Mulan tried to hide her excitement at needing to give up something that she didn't care about anyway. Rumplestiltskin walked over to one of his shelves and picked up a small pot of salve.  
"This is the same thing the doctor gave me."  
"Except it works immediately."  
Mulan skeptically applied it to her leg. To her shock, it did work immediately. Her wound closed up, and it even filled in the hole in her pants.  
"Thank you." She whispered, having been left breathless by her shock.  
"Anytime, dearie." Mulan left his palace and returned to her village. On the way back, she bumped into Philip.  
"Your leg healed already?"  
Mulan searched for a believable lie. "Yes, the doctor gave me some salve for it." Not a lie, technically, but Philip still seemed skeptical. He stared at her for a couple of seconds, then moved on. "I found out that your friend got captured by the Queen."  
"What?! When did this happen?!"  
"Soon after I left to find you."  
"We have to go get her."  
Philip nodded knowingly. "Because she's your true love."  
"What? No! Why would you think that?"  
"Because of the way that you reacted after I told you she had been taken. No one as stoic as you would react the way that you did for a friend that they had only met days ago. Not unless there was something more between the two of them than just friendship."  
"You're wrong."  
He smiled knowingly at her. "I don't think I am."  
"Are you coming, or not?"  
"Oh, I'm not coming. I have to go on my own quest to rescue my true love, a princess. When you rescue Belle, come find me."  
"I will." Mulan walked away from Philip, towards The Queen's castle. She wondered if Philip's theory had any merit to it. She had connected more with Belle in a few days, than she had with anyone else in her entire life. Belle was strong and capable, the most competent woman that she knew besides herself. She was brave and noble, sacrificing herself to save people that she didn't even know. Belle had many admirable qualities, but no, Mulan reassured herself. She wasn't in love with Belle, she just wanted Belle to be free to protect more people. The Queen's castle loomed in the distance, looking as cold and intimidating as The Queen herself. Mulan knew that the castle wouldn't have very much protection. The Queen was much too arrogant and sure of her own abilities for that. Mulan snuck in through a servants' door, aware of all of the entrances and exits of the castle after her short time she spent as a servant so that she could pay for her training. She stealthily ran up the stairs, instinctually knowing that Belle was locked in the tower. She stayed on the lookout for other servants or people walking down the stairs. Luckily, she made it up without anyone seeing her. She picked the lock to the door with some small metal implements that she always kept with her. She found Belle, asleep on the floor.  
"Belle!" Mulan whispered as she shook Belle awake. "Come on! The faster we leave, the higher the chance is that we escape."  
"I can't leave." Belle told her, dazed from having just woken up. "I have to save The Queen."  
"What are you talking about? She's the one that imprisoned you!"  
"I have to help her regain her humanity."  
"How do you plan on doing that from this tower? She'll never see you! Come ON! We have to leave!"  
"There's still good in her. I have to nurture that good, otherwise, I can never be with my true love, Rumplestiltskin. She'll just keep sabotaging our relationship."  
The words true love hurt Mulan more than one thousand cuts in her leg, more than any injury that she'd ever gotten. She didn't realize how much she loved Belle until she found out that that love wasn't reciprocated. She should have known that it wouldn't be this easy. She just walked into the palace, without a single obstacle. She should have known that she wouldn't be able to just walk into The Queen's castle and walk out with Belle as easily as that.  
"You actually want to stay here." The words were finally sinking in.  
"Yes."  
"So that you can live happily ever after with your one true love."  
"Yes."  
"If you're sure, then I'll go." Mulan said the words without any affect whatsoever. Completely calm and collected. No emotion was betrayed in her voice, even though on the inside, she was anything but calm. In that one moment, she felt more emotions than she'd ever felt in her entire life. She closed the door and walked down the stairs, leaving the castle as easily as she had come in. She walked back to her village and found Philip. He smiled when he saw her, but his face fell when he saw that she was alone.  
"Where's Belle?"  
"She didn't want to leave. She said that she needed to restore the good in The Queen so that she would stop sabotaging her relationship with her 'one true love.'"  
Philip grabbed Mulan and hugged her. "I'm sorry." The pity in his voice sickened her.  
"Get off of me. We have to go rescue your princess." Mulan pushed Philip off of her, ignoring the pity that she still saw in his eyes. They walked in silence, both absorbed in their thoughts. Philip was absorbed in his worry about Mulan and his hope that Mulan's bitterness over losing the woman she loved wouldn't consume her. Mulan couldn't stop thinking about Belle's unwitting rejection of her, about how falling love had made her weak, and that she would never make that mistake again.


End file.
